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Winds of Khalakovo: The First Volume of The Lays of Anuskaya Paperback – April 1, 2011
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When an elemental spirit attacks an incoming windship, murdering the Grand Duke and his retinue, Prince Nikandr, heir to the scepter of Khalakovo, is tasked with finding the child prodigy believed to be behind the summoning. However, Nikandr discovers that the boy is an autistic savant who may hold the key to lifting the blight that has been sweeping the islands. Can the Dukes, thirsty for revenge, be held at bay? Can Khalakovo be saved? The elusive answer drifts upon the Winds of Khalakovo...
- Print length464 pages
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherNight Shade Books
- Publication dateApril 1, 2011
- Dimensions6 x 1.16 x 9 inches
- ISBN-109781597802185
- ISBN-13978-1597802185
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Review
Elegantly crafted, refreshingly creative. --C.S. Friedman, Bestselling author of The Coldfire Trilogy
Well worth exploring... --Glen Cook, Bestselling author of The Black Company
The boldly imagined new world and sharply drawn characters will pull you into The Winds of Khalakovo and won't let you go until the last page. --Michael A. Stackpole, New York Times bestselling author of I, Jedi
Exactly the kind of fantasy I like to read. --Kevin J. Anderson, New York Times bestselling author of The Saga of the Seven Suns
From the Author
The genesis of the book is actually from a series of postcards of fine art that I picked up in Edinburgh, Scotland. (I posted about it on my website if you're curious to hear more about that.) I used that artwork to first generate and then crystallize my thoughts about the book. Initially, I tried not to let any one thing rule the brainstorming I would do from time to time. I didn't even know who the main characters were at first. I was quite taken by the picture of the three sisters, though, and I knew right away, the moment I laid eyes on the original in the National Gallery, that they would play a major part in the novel.
But in the end it was the picture of the boy with the flaming brand that kept leaping out at me, calling for attention. The artist is Godfried Schalcken, and the piece is called "A Boy Blowing on a Firebrand to Light a Candle." This character eventually became Nasim, the autistic savant. As I was studying the characters, I began to realize that this boy was not going to be a point-of-view character, but he was going to be a prime mover. In the end, he embodies much of what Winds is about. The story truly does revolve around him and his unique powers.
The brand that he holds in the painting also came into play. I didn't know what the magic was going to be about. I hardly had a single preconception about the book going in. I just wanted the artwork to speak to me, to advise me as to what the story was going to be--from the characters to the world to the magic. The boy blowing on the brand got me to thinking about elemental magic, and I realized that Nasim was one who could do this without even thinking. It came as naturally to him as did breathing. That's a difficult place to put a character, however. As a writer, you have to be careful of all-powerful things, and so I needed something to balance Nasim's abilities. And this, of course, is where his disconnection from the world came from. Nasim, as written in the book, is often lost. He has difficulty relating to others in even the smallest of ways. This both limited his power and made him in some ways more dangerous and more scary than a calculating villain, simply because of the unpredictability.
I'd be remiss if I didn't also mention Rehada, who started out as a somewhat minor character but grew into the most complex and perhaps the most compelling of my three main characters. Rehada came from Andrew Geddes' "Hagar." It's another beautiful painting, filled with emotion. I was drawn to the fact that she was crying. I wondered why. I spent a lot of time answering that one question. After knowing that her people were essentially pacifists, I realized that Rehada was not. She felt she had betrayed her people and their ways because she had taken to the path of violence. It was from this, from that one single tear, that the entirety of the Maharraht--the fanatical splinter group that came to embrace violence as a means to an end--was born.
About the Author
Brad lives in Racine, Wisconsin with his wife and two children. He is a software engineer by day, wrangling code into something resembling usefulness. He is also an amateur cook. He loves to cook spicy dishes, particularly Mexican and southwestern. As time goes on, however, Brad finds that his hobbies are slowly being whittled down to these two things: family and writing. In that order...
For more, please visit quillings.com.
Product details
- ASIN : 1597802182
- Publisher : Night Shade Books; 1st edition (April 1, 2011)
- Language : English
- Paperback : 464 pages
- ISBN-10 : 9781597802185
- ISBN-13 : 978-1597802185
- Item Weight : 1.24 pounds
- Dimensions : 6 x 1.16 x 9 inches
- Best Sellers Rank: #1,546,491 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #12,690 in Dark Fantasy
- #14,665 in Fantasy Action & Adventure
- #28,124 in Epic Fantasy (Books)
- Customer Reviews:
About the author

Bradley P. Beaulieu began writing his first fantasy novel in college, but in the way of these things, it was set aside as life intervened. As time went on, though, Brad realized that his love of writing and telling tales wasn't going to just slink quietly into the night. The drive to write came back full force in the early 2000s, at which point Brad dedicated himself to the craft, writing several novels and learning under the guidance of writers like Nancy Kress, Joe Haldeman, Tim Powers, Holly Black, Michael Swanwick, Kij Johnson, and many more.
Brad and his novels have garnered many accolades and most anticipated lists, including two Hotties--the Debut of the Year and Best New Voice--on Pat's Fantasy Hotlist, a Gemmell Morningstar Award nomination for The Winds of Khalakovo and more:
* 25 Best of 2015 lists for Twelve Kings in Sharakhai
* 2016 Gemmell Legend Award Nomination for Twelve Kings in Sharakhai
* Top Ten Book and Debut of the Year for 2011 on Pat's Fantasy Hotlist for The Winds of Khalakovo
* Best New Voice of 2011 on Pat's Fantasy Hotlist
* 2011 Gemmell Morningstar Award Nomination for The Winds of Khalakovo
* Top Ten Debut for The Winds of Khalakovo on Ranting Dragon's Best of 2011
* Top Ten Debut for The Winds of Khalakovo on Mad Hatter's Best of 2011
* Honorable Mention for The Winds of Khalakovo on LEC Reviews Best of 2011
* Top Five Book for 2012 on Pat's Fantasy Hotlist for The Straits of Galahesh
* 2012 Most Anticipated for The Straits of Galahesh on Staffer's Book Review
* 2012 Most Anticipated for The Straits of Galahesh on The Ranting Dragon
* 2013 Most Anticipated for The Flames of Shadam Khoreh on The Ranting Dragon
In addition to being an L. Ron Hubbard Writers of the Future Award winner, Brad's stories have appeared in various other publications, including Realms of Fantasy Magazine, Orson Scott Card's Intergalactic Medicine Show, Writers of the Future 20, and several anthologies from DAW Books. His story, "In the Eyes of the Empress's Cat," was voted a Notable Story of 2006 in the Million Writers Award.
Brad continues to work on his next projects, including an Arabian Nights epic fantasy and a Norse-inspired middle grade series. He also runs the highly successful science fiction and fantasy podcast, Speculate, which can be found at speculatesf.com.
Novels
THE SONG OF THE SHATTERED SANDS
* Of Sand and Malice Made
* Twelve Kings in Sharakhai
* With Blood Upon the Sand
* A Veil of Spears
THE LAYS OF ANUSKAYA
* The Winds of Khalakovo
* The Straits of Galahesh
* The Flames of Shadam Khoreh
Short Story Collections
* Lest Our Passage Be Forgotten & Other Stories
Novellas
* The Burning Light (with Rob Ziegler)
* Strata (with Stephen Gaskell)
* Irindai
Novelettes
* "To the Towers of Tulandan", a Lays of Anuskaya story. First printed in Lest Our Passage Be Forgotten & Other Stories.
* "Unearthed", a Bryndlholt story. First printed in Lest Our Passage Be Forgotten & Other Stories.
* "Lest Our Passage Be Forgotten". First printed in Realms of Fantasy Magazine.
* "From the Spices of Sanandira". First printed in Beneath Ceaseless Skies.
* "Foretold". First printed in Steampunk'd by DAW Books.
* "How Peacefully the Desert Sleeps". First printed in Orson Scott Card's Intergalactic Medicine Show.
* "Cirque Du Lumière". First printed in Fellowship Fantastic by DAW Books.
Short Stories
* "Prima", a Lays of Anuskaya story. First printed in Lest Our Passage Be Forgotten & Other Stories.
* "In the Eyes of the Empress's Cat". First printed in Orson Scott Card's Intergalactic Medicine Show.
* "Sweet as Honey". First printed in Orson Scott Card's Intergalactic Medicine Show.
* "Shadows in the Mirrors". First printed in Dimensions Next Door by DAW Books.
* "Parting the Clouds". First printed in Time-Traveled Tales.
* "An Instrument of War". First printed in Lest Our Passage Be Forgotten & Other Stories.
* "Flotsam". First printed in Writers of the Future XX.
* "Prey to the Gods". First printed in Lest Our Passage Be Forgotten & Other Stories.
* "A Trade of Shades". First printed in Alien Skin Magazine.
* "Good Morning Heartache". First printed in Spells in the City by DAW Books.
Contact Information
Website: www.quillings.com
Podcast: www.speculatesf.com
Twitter: @bbeaulieu
Facebook: facebook.com/bradley.p.beaulieu
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Russia is one of these. Oh, there have been novels set in Russia's past, but unique cultures and societies based on the grammar of Russian culture are thin on the ground. The only one that comes immediately to mind is Sarah Zettel's Isavalta sequence of novels.
Bradley Beaulieu has decided to help fill in that gap. In the Winds of Khalakovo, Beaulieu introduces us to a secondary world, an archipelago dominated world. The culture of the Landed, the dominant race and people of the islands, borrows heavily from the Russian. Titles of the nobility have a distinctly Russian bent, as do the names for units of the military, governance, names, and more. Food and drink are distinctly Russian. Clothing on this cold world also features traditional modes of Russian dress as well.
That would be enough invention for an epic fantasy world for many, but Beaulieu goes further, adding in an underclass, the Landless Aramahn, whose culture and customs are reminiscent of ancient Persia and the Middle East, and feel much like the Romany of Eastern Europe. The names for the elemental spirits, the various types of hezhan, that the Aramahn have connection to continues this line of inspiration.
The Winds of Khalakovo focuses mainly on three central characters:
Nikandr, Prince of the Khalakovo , youngest son of the reigning Duke and Duchess of that archipelago.
Atiana is a Princess of Vostroma, daughter of the Duke and Duchess. She has a brother, and two sisters.
The two families, Vostroma and Khalakovo, have carefully arranged an impending marriage between them., and the two have known each other, on and off, since they were children. Atiana's brother Borund and Nikandr regard each other as friends.
And then there is Rehada. She is an Aramahn, and has been Nikandr's mistress for some time. And she is, unbeknownst to her royal lover, far more than the wandering Aramahn than she appears to be.
With the politics and tension of the impending marriage hovering over the island, it is exactly at this time that that Maharraht, an outlawed sect of the Aramahn seeking to relieve their oppression, strike out viciously, propelling Nikandr, Atiana and Rehada into their own plans for the future of the islands. And there are others who would take advantage of the chaos, for their own political gain.
Beaulieu takes his time in setting up the central conflict and action in the novel, taking an almost leisurely amount of time to establish his world and his characters before unleashing the first notes of the problem of the novel. While this does allow for readers to get up to speed on an unfamiliar world, I think Beaulieu might have been a bit too leisurely. There are a couple of minor conflicts early on that allow for some character development and tension, but putting off the first major "bang" relatively deep into the book, I think, is problematic. Also problematic, I think, is some of the characterization in the book. The relationship between Nikandr and his sister Victania for example, is something I only really got a handle on from Nikandr's side--there isn't a lot to go on the other side to really round out the relationship. The relationship between Nikandr and Atiana, too, I think, needed a little more work and development. The Nikandr-Rehada relationship, I think, is written in stronger terms.
Those issues aside, however, there is a lot here for epic fantasy fans to sink their teeth into. As I said in the opening to this review, Beaulieu has taken the opportunity to mine some unexplored veins for ideas in this secondary world. There is a genius to use Russian culture on a world template--an archipelago, very different than one might expect in a Russian culture inspired novel. Archipelagos are an uncommon and underused setting for secondary world novels. It helps reinforce the secondary world feel of the book and is a great choice, I think, for the world building.
Unusually for secondary world fantasy, gunpowder or something like it does work in this universe. The soldiers and other characters carry single shot muskets, and there are cannon on ships and fortifications.
And then there are the airships. While there are indications that there are ships that brave the aquatic currents between the islands and archipelagos, the primary conveyance between islands are flying ships, powered and propelled by Aramahn who can control spirits of wind and life. Beaulieu takes full advantage of these windship. They are lovingly described in detail, and in contrast to the otherwise Russian terminology, Beaulieu uses Western naval names for ship parts and types of ships. Given the lack of a real naval tradition in Russia, this choice does make sense, but it does break the Russian immersion of the culture a little bit. As you might expect, a lot of the action scenes in the novel take place on board the ships, and there is airship-airship duels and combats. This allows the author to insert a fair share of swashbuckling and feats of derring do.
Another excellent bit of development in the novel is the differing approaches to magic by the Landed, Nikandr and the other families, and the Landless Aramahn. While the latter control elemental spirits and have the most visible magic, the Matra of the families of the duchies have a magic all of their own, their own methods of magic an interesting contrast, and far more subtle than summoning hezhan.
For a first novel, Beaulieu shows a good command of language. The book is written in a third person past tense point of view, except for some special situations. Although I thought it was a mistake by the author at first, those times when he breaks that tense and point of view combination are deliberate, and are a subtle signal to the reader of something I will allow you to discover as I did.
(A longer version of this review originally appeared at the Functional Nerds)
The main character in The Winds of Khalakovo is the heir to one of the most powerful royal families that controls the construction of the large air ships that fuels the nation's economy. I really enjoyed this character, especially with him having to deal with debilitating illness and everything it entails. At the beginning of the novel, he's about to have an arranged marriage with the sister of his best friend to link two of the powerful royal families. Things become a little complicated as he has a true love with someone else (even though she's apparently a courtesan, and an undercover terrorist), along with multiple terrorist attacks on air ships leading up to the marriage ceremonies, and the revelation of Nikandr's illness. Here, is where things started to get really weird. Each point of the love triangle is a viewpoint character, and while I at first enjoyed each of them, the terrorist/courtesan does something completely unforgivable yet the author seems to think that the reader will still feel for her afterwards. To expand on this, I'm going to have to go into spoiler territory, so if you haven't read the book yet you should skip to the next paragraph. SPOILER: She is told by her former lover and current terrorist leader sacrifice one of her only friend's newborn baby to summon a powerful spirit, and she does, murdering a total innocent in cold blood. The author tries to redeem her by having her go back to the friends house to try to remove the poisonous talisman, but it's too late as the baby is already dead, and when the family rightfully blames her and attempts to get justice, her terrorist friends murder the entire family (Mom, Father, and Grandfather of the slaughtered baby). The reason the author gives for the character's motivation is that her own child was killed after a terrorist hid in the house of the family babysitting for her, and overeager police burned the building down after they wouldn't turn him over. However, to me this should make her less likely to murder a completely innocent baby and then his entire family (although that wasn't directly), not give her motivation. The character does go through a change of heart later in the story, but I just didn't care, I wanted her to suffer and die for her horrible actions, and I didn't care if she had any redemption. There's another big problem I had with the book that completely frustrated and confused me and is a spoiler to talk about, and that's the actions of Nikandr's supposed best friend. During a hunt, he purposefully shoots and kills his dog for no reason, other than to be spiteful. In fact all of his best friend's horrible actions didn't make any sense, as really the only reason given for them is that they grew apart as friends, with him becoming more like his father along with having a resentment of the power Nikandr's family holds. What made it even worse was the fact that he never has to pay for his actions (at least in this book). /end spoilers
The writing here is very good, but at the same time the very unique Russian setting limited the flow of my reading as a lot of different Russian terms were included. The mix of Russian and normal English worked, but at the same time it could feel a little forced. Overall, while I had problems with the book, I still enjoyed reading it, and I definitely plan to continue the series eventually. I would recommend this book, but with the caveat that not everyone is going to enjoy it. Still, this is a great book that has a lot of redeeming features.
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So others may enjoy , and i wouldn't want to dissuade others from something they might enjoy.




I bought this one after reading 12 Kings of Sharakhai, expecting a similar experience that will make me read the book in a few hours.
But so far, it's a big "meeehhh" - boring characters, not as well written as the other ones and a book that I will certainly never finish and delete from my kindle.